


The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s16,1: The Right Buyer

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [107]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Blood and Violence, Deadlock Gang, Deadlock Jesse McCree, Gen, Goddesses, Gods, Post-Talon, Revenge, Talon Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23951938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: Katya Volskaya's government in Russia has destroyed the omnium Koschei, and held their own against the Gods of Oasis. With no point to additional fighting, the overt war has paused. But covertly, the conflict carries on. The gods, after all, still have a plan, and will do what is needed - one way, or another.Jesse McCree's plan to assassinate Moira O'Deorain worked. But he did not reckon on the kind of reckoning a literal Goddess of Time could provide.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflictis a continuance ofThe Arc of Ascension,The Arc of Creation, andThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. To follow the story as it appears,please subscribe to the series.
Relationships: Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe & Jesse McCree
Series: Of Gods and Monsters [107]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024
Comments: 14
Kudos: 31





	The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s16,1: The Right Buyer

**Author's Note:**

> Until and unless I can build a buffer again, it seems silly to stick to Sunday evenings as a strict release schedule. I mean, this is ready, so why make people wait when it's already been over a week?
> 
> If we get to the point of having a buffer again, we'll go back to Sundays.
> 
> dirtyclaws has launched [a public fan-run _Of Gods and Monsters_ discord server](https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT) and invites everyone to come join it. ^_^

_[between blinks, one]_

> _Jesse McCree didn't freeze when Lena Oxton appeared in front of him, face contorted in unrelenting rage. It felt to him like he did, but he didn't. She was just that fast, and the slipstream just that strange, and his eyes widened with terror as she dragged him bodily into it._
> 
> _"Before we get started, Jesse, I just wanted you to know - it worked. You got her."_
> 
> _She coughed up a miserable imitation of a laugh, pressing her pistol into his neck as they fell through time._
> 
> _"It's just too bad for **you** that gettin' **her** is how you end up with **me**."_

_[Deadlock Gorge, Arizona, in normal time]_

"Found him!"

Mata followed up her shout with a loud, long whistle, a wave, and another yell. "FOUUUUUND HIIIIIIIM!"

Ashe and the other Deadlock Gang survivors waved back from their various positions around the hideout, still searching for anyone else, alive or dead. So far, to their surprise, they'd mostly found survivors - one of whom was still gibbering about seeing blue demons, flying through the air.

She had to admit, Mata felt right smart about her choice of milagro right now.

Ashe clambered up the rocky path and made her way over to the flat spot where Jesse McCree lay staring straight up into the deep blue sky, mostly still, but breathing, twitching, and with every breath, letting out a long, slow, silent scream.

"Jesus..." Ashe whispered, as Mata reflexively crossed herself. Ashe squatted down, seeing the cowboy's emptied pockets - and holster. "Cleaned him out, looks like."

"Looks like she took his hands, too," Mata said, pointing at the pooled blood to the cowboy's right, then looked again. "Well, his fingers, anyway." She leaned around, over Ashe, checking the prosthetic arm. "Both sides."

"Jesse!" Ashe snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Jesse!"

He didn't respond. He just kept trying to scream.

"God damn, Jess. I always wanted to prove I was faster on the draw, but by beatin' you in a fair fight. Not like this. C'mon. Pull yourself together."

She slapped him a couple of times across the face, open palm on cheek. When he didn't even seem to notice, she stood back up, her shadow blocking the sun from his eyes.

"What're we gonna do with him, boss? Finish him?"

"Was kinda plannin' on it, yeah. But maybe not yet."

"We still got the goods?"

"I think so. Maybe. But maybe not. Bob's checkin' that out right now. Real careful-like."

From the middle distance came the sound of a large explosion, and all the gangsters dropped to the ground. "Bob!" Ashe called into her comms. "BOB! You okay, Bob?!"

She didn't have to wait long for a reply, she just let out a relieved breath. "Bob's okay." She stood back up, and gave the all-clear sign. "IT'S ALL RIGHT Y'ALL - BOB JUST GOT RID OF A BOMB."

"Bomb?" Mata asked, alarmed.

"Yeah. That big datapac thing. The 'crown jewels.' Blowed up real good, apparently."

Mata spat, and chose to do so at the twitching cowboy. "So much for the payoff."

Ashe snarled a little, angered again by the reminder, and popped back onto comms. "Bob, didya manage t'save anything?" she asked, hunching back down next to Jesse, or what was left of him.

Jesse was still screaming, or trying to. Right about now, Ashe liked him that way.

"Good. Finish what you're doin', and bring the rest back. Maybe we can salvage somethin'. Thanks. What? Oh. Hold on, I'll warn 'em."

She stood, and whistled to get everyone's attention. "GONNA BE ANOTHER BOOM, 'BOUT TEN, TWELVE SECONDS. Y'ALL GOT THAT?!"

Various members of the gang shouted back their readiness, and she gave Bob the all-clear. Fourteen seconds later came another explosion, about as loud at the first.

"Two bombs?!"

"Yeah. Briefcase liner. Bob says it was a directed charge, set to blow right at whoever opened it. Focus both explosions. Real clever work, 'cept for the way we weren't told and how it got half our gang killed."

"You stupid-ass motherfucker," Mata said, kicking Jesse in the side, _real_ hard, and Ashe couldn't find it in herself to blame her. Jesse - or whatever was left of him - blinked a few times, and stilled himself for a moment.. "What the hell were you doin'?"

"Heh," Ashe said. "Always figured he was about half cowboy movie. Just had the movie wrong. 'The Assasination of Moira O'Deorain by the Coward Jesse McCree' has kind of a ring to it, don't y'think?"

"So what's left of the goods?" Mata asked. "Anything?"

"All the papers, all the other drives. The big one was the booby trap. We'll be lucky to get a million Euros now, but - well, we might still get somethin'. I'll look it over when Bob gets back."

"If you ain't gonna shoot this asshole, can I go ahead and do it?"

Ashe thought for a moment, and then for another moment, real hard.

"Nah," she said. "Let's get him inside, see if we can get him calmed down at least enough to stop tryin' to yell. Maybe we can get him t'talk if he'll give his vocal cords a rest for a while." She shined a light into his mouth. "Looks like he's still got his tongue."

"You're the boss, but - why bother?"

"He said he was still with Overwatch, remember? On some kinda mission."

She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes again, and tried to see if he'd track hand movements. No reaction.

"You still believe that line?"

"Nah, not really. But who knows. Can't hurt to find out. Get his feet, I'll get his head."

She knelt down and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, as Mata grabbed his boots and hefted up.

"Maybe he was workin' for him, or maybe they're after him. Maybe he really did have a next target."

Ashe kicked the remnants of a mechanical finger out from under her foot, and it fell down the hillside, picking up speed as it went.

"Either way - _somebody's_ gonna want to know - and _somebody's_ gonna pay t'get him back."

**Author's Note:**

> People are already asking about [between blinks, one], so I'll go ahead and say that this [between blinks] is numbered because yes, there will be more.
> 
> Also! I've wanted a picture of Oilliphéist for the longest time, so I commissioned [the extremely talented Sitriga](https://twitter.com/sitriga) to draw her, essentially as she looked on her first mission out, way back in _Living Weapon_.
> 
>   
> 
> 
> I couldn't resist the idea of putting her in the Chateau even though the art styles were, like, completely different, so I decided to set it up like a scene in a visual novel JRPG. ^_^
> 
> This is the thirty-sixth instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict_. To follow the story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


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